It’s been about three weeks since the last episode, largely because the beer news world has been pretty slow lately. We came back strong, though, with a long conversation about quality control at breweries and what a brewer’s responsibility to their customers is when bad beer is released.

7:50 to 30:37 Quality Control in Breweries. At a bottle share in San Diego, Ryan had a bottle of an Upland Brewery sour that gushed nearly a foot in the air and left him with only half a bottle left. This got him to thinking about breweries and their quality control, and what they might owe the consumers that get obviously flawed beer. Should a consumer get compensation for a bad bottle? I talk about issues I’ve had with Jolly Pumpkin beers, as well as Keweenaw brewing. Also mentioned: Deschutes, the Lost Abbey, Dark Horse, and more. Lots of breweries have occasional or continuing issues with quality control; what is the proper response to these issues? We’d love to hear your thoughts and if we get enough responses we’ll do a bunch of emails in a future episode, so please listen and respond at beyondthepour@gmail.com.

30:37 to 35:15 Taking a bit of a tangent off of that, as beer reviewers we tend to try to make sure we’re getting the freshest and best beer possible for review on the show, but that’s not always a fair representation for what’s on the shelf and available in the market. Do we bend over backwards a bit too much to make sure we’re “fair” to the products we review?

35:15 to 55:53 What we’ve been drinking lately and our wrap-up. Ryan had an out-of-town guest in his house last week, none other than fellow Beertuber Master of Hoppets, so we talk a bit about that. I also talk about being back in school and the way that that has effected my beer drinking. We talk a lot about how great the people in the craft beer community are, and end another episode imploring people to engage in bottle shares.

This month’s Session is all about Pale Ales. Hosted by The Beer Babe: She asks:

“Your mission — if you choose to accept it — it so seek out and taste two different pale ales. Tell us what makes them special, what makes them forgettable, what makes them the same or what makes them different. Then, share it with us.”

I had a bottle of Fuller’s London Pride and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I also talk a bit about pale ales in general, why we as beer geeks tend not to take them too seriously, and why we perhaps should. Check out the video below.

(Any beer bloggers watching this video should definitely check out the Youtube beer community if you haven’t already. There are some great channels out there doing some pretty incredible beer reviews. Likewise, any beertubers out there who haven’t plugged in to the beer blog community are missing out, as well.)